Abstract
Greenspaces within broader ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction strategies (Eco-DRR) provide multiple benefits to society, biodiversity, and addressing climate breakdown. In this study, we investigated urban growth, its intersection with hazards, and the availability of greenspace for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the city of Quito, Ecuador, which experiences multiple hazards including landslides, floods, volcanoes, and earthquakes. We used satellite data to quantify urban sprawl and developed a workflow incorporating high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) to identify potential greenspaces for emergency refuge accommodation (DRR greenspace), for example following an earthquake. Quito’s historical urban growth totalled ~192 km2 1986–2020 and was primarily on flatter land crossed by deep ravines. By contrast, future projections indicate an increasing intersection between easterly urbanisation and steep areas of high landslide susceptibility. Therefore, a timely opportunity exists for future risk-informed planning. Our workflow identified 18.6 km2 of DRR greenspaces, of which 16.3 km2 intersected with potential sources of landslide and flood hazards, indicating that hazard events could impact potential ‘safe spaces’. These spaces could mitigate future risk if designated as greenspaces and left undeveloped. DRR greenspace overlapped 7 % (2.5 km2) with municipality designated greenspace. Similarly, 10 % (1.7 km2) of municipality designated ‘safe space’ for use following an earthquake was classified as potentially DRR suitable in our analysis. For emergency refuge, currently designated greenspaces could accommodate ~2–14 % of Quito’s population within 800 m. This increases to 8–40 % considering all the potential DRR greenspace mapped in this study. Therefore, a gap exists between the provision of DRR and designated greenspace. Within Quito, we found a disparity between access to greenspaces across socio-economic groups with lower income groups having less access and further to travel to designated greenspaces. Notably, the accessibility of greenspaces was high overall with 98 % (2.3 million) of Quito’s population within 800 m of a designated greenspace, of which 88 % (2.1 million) had access to potential DRR greenspaces. Our workflow demonstrates a citywide evaluation of DRR greenspace potential and provides the foundation upon which to evaluate these spaces with local stakeholders. Promoting equitable access to greenspaces, communicating their multiple benefits, and considering their use to restrict propagating development into hazardous areas are key themes that emerge for further investigation.
Highlights
Urbanising and increasing populations are a global trend that create a range of societal and environmental challenges including food and water security (Godfray et al, 2010; Hoekstra et al, 2018), air pollution (Fenger, 1999; Escobedo andNowak, 2009; Zalakeviciute et al, 2018), disease (Marmot et al, 2008), loss of biodiversity (McDonald et al, 2020), climate change (De Sherbinin et al, 2007; Flörke et al, 2018), and exposure to disaster risk (Pelling et al, 2004)
Our workflow demonstrates a citywide evaluation of Disaster risk reduction (DRR) greenspace potential and provides the foundation upon which to evaluate these spaces with local stakeholders
Our land cover classifications showed that the urban area of Quito expanded ~192 km 2 over the study period, more than doubling from 160±50 km2 in 1986 to 352±47 km2 in 2020 (Fig. 4, Table S4)
Summary
Urbanising and increasing populations are a global trend that create a range of societal and environmental challenges including food and water security (Godfray et al, 2010; Hoekstra et al, 2018), air pollution (Fenger, 1999; Escobedo andNowak, 2009; Zalakeviciute et al, 2018), disease (Marmot et al, 2008), loss of biodiversity (McDonald et al, 2020), climate change (De Sherbinin et al, 2007; Flörke et al, 2018), and exposure to disaster risk (Pelling et al, 2004). Nature-based solutions (NbS) involving greenspace in cities are increasingly recognised within a framework of Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) (Estrella and Saalismaa, 2013; Faivre et al, 2018; UNDRR, 2020) and can be designed and monitored using an increasing number of earth observation (EO) technologies (Kumar et al, 2021). EO data are widely used for land cover classifications to quantify historical trends in urban expansion and to model future urbanisation projections (Schneider and Woodcock, 2008; Bonilla-Bedoya et al., 2020b). Both high-resolution (< 1 m, commercial) (Myint et al, 2011; Georganos et al, 2018) and medium resolution
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